A compilation of articles from 19th and early 20th century periodicals, many of which could be considered relevant to today's world, or revealing forgotten things about the past...or just plain interesting.

Pittsburgh 1920

Here are excerpts from the Nov. 6, 1920 issue of the Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA (USA). I aquired a few pages many years ago, gone brown and crumbling around the edges. They've gotten more crumbly since, so I scanned them, cleaned them up, and am posting most of what I had.

Shall we start with the funnies?The first strip is Abie the Agent and was a very popular strip from 1914 through the 20's. It was drawn by Harry Hershield, and was about a Jewish car salesman named Abie Kabibble. It's the first strip to show a Jewish character in a positive light.

The second strip is Jerry on the Job by Walter Hoban. Jerry stayed a small kid over the years, no parents ever appeared. He just held odd jobs at one place or another. After WW 1 he started working at a train station for the peevish Mr.Givney. this particular comic has a reference to the Bolshevics.

Next we have Hon and Dearie, How Do They Do It? and The General.

Hon and Dearie was drawn by Jack Callahan, and the characters were later also seen in another strip called The Piffle Family.How Do They Do It? and The General were both drawn by Arnot.Next, an episode of Thimble Theater, from whence was born Popeye. Here we see Olive Oyl and Ham Gravy.Bringing Up Father., which ran from 1913 to 2000 and was also known as Jiggs and Maggie. In the center panel Jiggs says "If I get by her room I'm all right".Stuck to the Last was found on the sports pageFinally, Then the Fun BeganThe rest of the pages I had held partial sports stories and scores, ads and the want ads,lots and lots of want ads....Here's a selection from Men Wanted. In those days you could specify if you wanted an employee who was "colored", "foreign","married" or "Catholic".Let's see some of the Female Help Wanted. How would you like to be a pickle sorter?The next section has more Female Help Wanted ads, someone was desperate for a prima donna and a soubrette, someone else wanted a Hungarian or Bohemian cook. There are also a few Board Wanted ads, 3 of which are for essentially day care for the children of working mothers.Shall we see what's playing at the movies? Oh yes, the only complete news stories I had from this issue are on this page.I'd heard of all the stars on the page, but for a few, but you can find bios about them all online if you're interested.What's left? Advertising!This first piece also has a few news items with it.